Understring Felt and Stinging Felt (Braid) ?

[Gordon Holley]

Thanks Joe for the advice.  Yes, Danny at G.C. Piano (string maker) 
is re-scaling the tenor and treble.  I furnished him with the 
speaking lengths in mm on the left string of all of those unisons.  
If you wouldn't mind, I have a question which you might be able to 
help me with.  The felt or cloth that was used at the bass hitch pins 
was 1 3/8" wide and less than 1/8" thick.  It was pushed down over 
all of the hitch pins with the loop and the winding portion of the 
string laying on the felt.  I ordered understring felt for this 
application and what Schaff sent me was 1/4" thick x 1/2" wide.  
Should I ignore the application that Starr used with the wide, thin, 
felt pushed over the hitch pins, and use this 1/4" x 1/2" felt laying 
on the plate in front of the hitch pins?.  Or should I try and get a 
new thin, wide, felt or cloth to again use here. Hopefully I've 
described this OK.  Thanks Joe.  Regards, Gordon Holley

On 25 Jul 2002 at 15:32, Joseph Garrett wrote:

> Gordon,
> What did the piano sound like, before you took the strings off. I.E. was it
> a bit wild with unwanted harmonics, etc.? If the answer is yes, then I would
> probably add some understringing felt 3/8" to 1/2" wide, no more. If you
> don't know the  answer, then you can always weave some braid in after, if
> the Harmonics thing is a bit much. Some times, if the piano doesn't have
> enough "Zing" to it, I will add brass 1/2 round or oval round bars, in the
> appropriate places, to "bring it up". This will sometimes aid in better
> string rendering between the tuning pin and the speaking length. (Lots of
> reasons for doing this.)
> I've seen a lot of Small pianos that didn't have anything to stop the
> "non-speaking lengths" from sounding. I suspect to "make the piano sound
> bigger". <G>
> One thing, If you are having the bass/tenor strings "scaled", then you'd be
> well advised to scale the rest of the piano, as well. The reason being,
> that, #1 Starr pianos are bit suspect in their Quality Control and in their
> choice of "scaling", IMHO. How do I know this? I own a 7'10" one. (Nuff said
> there!) More often than not I find scales to be pretty screwed up, in the
> tenor/treble/upper treble area. Some due to poor bridge making/notching and
> some just bad "pirated" scales being used. So, take that few extra hours to
> take the speaking lengths and re-calc that treble as well.
> Just my thoughts.
> Best Regards
> Joe Garrett, RPT, (Oregon)
> 
> Squares Are Grand Too!<G>